Warriors bare their teeth

Trinidad & Tobago will be defiant opponents for England in Nuremberg on Thursday

On Thursday in Nuremberg, England face a country determined to take as many memories as possible from what may prove their only chance on the world stage.

That makes Trinidad & Tobago dangerously defiant adversaries, as Sweden discovered last night in Dortmund. The 0-0 draw complicates Group B, particularly for the Swedes. Lars Lagerback, their coach, now estimates that they may need two wins to reach the knockout stage. Perhaps he underestimated Leo Beenhakker’s gutsy team, and England must not now repeat that mistake.

They have the firepower to bury Trinidad & Tobago under an avalanche of goals, yet will have to show greater imagination than they did yesterday against a stuffy Paraguay and must hope that these underdogs have had their day, that the heat of the Westfalenstadion’s oven has taken the fight from their legs. Perhaps, though, Trinidad & Tobago have now restored the morale which was sapped